


Night Terror

by talefeathers



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Cute, Fluff, Friendship, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Night Terrors, [final pam voice] god forgive me, i am so bad at tagging, post suffering game, there IS however a single f-bomb
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-22
Updated: 2016-12-22
Packaged: 2018-12-27 18:54:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 425
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12087252
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/talefeathers/pseuds/talefeathers
Summary: Merle thought for a long time that Taako had lied about having night terrors to get extra pillows in his room at the Bureau of Balance.  It wasn’t until the night they returned from Wonderland that Merle realized the young wizard had been sincere.





	Night Terror

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt: Someone's greatest fear for Taako and any relevant characters.

Merle thought for a long time that Taako had lied about having night terrors to get extra pillows in his room at the Bureau of Balance. It wasn’t until the night they returned from Wonderland that Merle realized the young wizard had been sincere.

Merle was still awake as the hour crept up on 1:00, nervous, though he’d never admit it, about what his own dreams might have in store for him. He was wondering whether he should just count the night as a loss and look for a book to read when he heard a muffled yelp through the wall that separated his room from Taako’s. Curious (and obviously not sleeping any time soon), Merle pulled himself out of his bed, walked into the hallway, and rapped on the door to the left of his own.

“Taako?” he called.

There was no response from the other side of the door, but after a moment’s listening Merle thought he could hear something like sniffling.

“Taako, you okay in there?”

A few more seconds of relative silence.

“Yeah, I’m okay,” Taako replied, voice thin.

“Nah, you don’t sound okay.” Merle would be the first to admit that, for someone who was both a cleric and a father, he wasn’t a great nurturer. One thing he’d always had, however, was a sense for whether or not the words “I’m okay” were a lie. “C’mon, open up.”

There was another hanging silence in which Merle didn’t think Taako would oblige, but eventually the bolt slid back and Taako’s door opened. Taako was sleep-tousled and sheepish, and seemed unable to quite meet Merle’s eyes.

“So that was a night terror, huh?” Merle asked, taking care to keep his tone gentle.

“I told you I get them,” Taako muttered.

Merle nodded.

“You wanna talk about it?” he asked.

“You know, as totally baller as revisiting my deepest, darkest fears sounds,” Taako said, something of his signature smirk trying to creep back onto his face, “I’d sooner fucking die.”

“Alright,” Merle chuckled. “How about we talk about something else, then?”

Merle didn’t expect much to come from this; hell, he hadn’t expected the door to open at all. He was pleasantly surprised when Taako, one of the most carefully guarded people he’d ever met, opened the door to his room a little wider and gestured for him to enter.

“What the heck,” Taako said. “It’s not like I’m going back to sleep any time soon.”

Merle smiled, following Taako into his Bureau of Balance suite.

“Yeah,” he said, “me neither.”


End file.
